Are you using embedded video to the fullest in your communications applications? Are you considering using it in the future? Why is embedded video important for you as an application developer?

Embedded video enables two-way interactive video communications within digital applications — without requiring your users to open a separate video conferencing app. Developers embed this video capability for a variety of devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, and even directly within web browsers, through the use of APIs and SDKs. You might embed video into an app that enables patients to talk to their doctors over video rather than at an office, or into an app to allow field service representatives to engage with a technical support person face-to-face rather than over text chat.

An extensive survey by Vidyo reveals attitudes toward this emerging technological trend. The Rise of Embedded Video Communications Report 2018 is a global survey of nearly 350 product-development professionals who design and create software products for internal and external use throughout their organizations.

The report offers five tips that can help you effectively embed video into your workflows:

Select applications where video communication can add business value

Ideal use cases for embedded video include relationship-based selling of high-value financial products (e.g., mortgages or investments) or empathy environments (e.g., healthcare or therapy). Survey participants’ top four use cases are technical support, enterprise communications, customer engagement, and video-assisted sales.

Ensure that the hosting footprint matches the intended user geography

Real-time communications is more sensitive to network performance than are other types of web applications, such as ecommerce or social media. You won’t notice if a webpage takes an extra two seconds to load, but you will notice a two-second pause in audio and video. If you’re building your own hosted environment, don’t expect to get good-quality video for users in one part of the world if your provider only has data centers halfway around the world. If you choose a cloud provider, be sure to consider a vendor whose cloud has sufficient coverage for your users.

Avoid the temptation to build it yourself

Real-time communications is unlike other technologies developers may have experience with. It is very sensitive to the performance and capability of the devices participating in the call. Without proper setup, you could experience poor-video quality, losing users during video sessions.

Many businesses believe that they can simply take open source software and build a solution. But the survey shows that those who have gone on this journey and have the battle scars to show for it prefer to use a communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS), which delivers the video component rather than requiring developers to build it themselves.

Carefully consider your available support resources when choosing a video platform

Make sure the video vendor offers the resources you’ll need to be successful. Ask yourself these questions: Can I get support when I need it? Do they offer sample code to get me started faster? Can I speak to someone live when I get stuck, or am I forced to read the documentation for help? Is there good-quality documentation available? If I have an urgent problem that may impact my time to launch, are there options for getting help in a timely manner?

Choose CPaaS to speed your time to market

The longer you take to implement and deploy embedded video, the further ahead your competitors will be. If time is a factor, then CPaaS is the choice for your development team. CPaaS provides embedded video communications by design. It’s offered through a set of easy-to-use APIs that were specifically designed so that developers without a deep knowledge of video communications can build with them. CPaaS is backed by a fully hosted infrastructure and maintained by a team of experts who do the hard work so you don’t have to.